McIlroy no fan of a Ryder Cup without fans

World’s No. 1 player predicts tourney will wait until 2021

As part of professional golf’s revised schedule, the Ryder Cup will take place Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. At least that’s the plan amid the uncertainty created by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Rory McIlroy, the world’s No. 1 golfer, doesn’t think it’s the greatest idea and predicts the event will be postponed by a year.

“My personal hunch is that I don’t see how it is going to happen, so I do not think that it will happen,” he told the BBC.

“I think the majority of players would like to see it pushed back until 2021 so that they can play in front of crowds and have the atmosphere that makes the Ryder Cup so special.

“The players are the ones that make the Ryder Cup. If they are not on board with it and don’t want to play then there is no Ryder Cup.

“I see it being pushed back until 2021and, honestly, I think that will be the right call.”

The thought of a Ryder Cup held without galleries of rowdy fans — a trademark of the biennial competition between a team of American golfers and a team from Europe — has caused consternation in the golf world. Seth Waugh, chief executive of the PGA of America, said last month that the Ryder Cup is “a very unique thing” and that “it’s hard to imagine one without fans.”

Padraig Harrington, captain of this year’s European team, initially agreed with Waugh, telling BBCRadio in early April that “nobody wants to see the Ryder Cup played without the fans being there” and that “the common consensus now is the Ryder Cup will not be played unless the fans are there.”

Harrington’s views have changed, however. In late April, he told the London Times that the Ryder Cup perhaps should be played, even without fans, “for the greater good of sport.”

“It wouldn’t be in the Ryder Cup’s best interests, but it could be in the best interests of enough people who want to see a big sporting occasion on TV,” Harrington said.

World No. 3 Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, has said he has no interest in playing in a Ryder Cup without fans.

“I personally don’t want to play if there’s no fans,” he said earlier this month. “I don’t see a point in playing it.”

“I get representing your country is an honor and it’s something that’s so much fun,” Koepka continued, “but at the same time, the fans make that event. That’s what we get nervous on the first tee. You hear the chants. You hear everything that’s going on — the ‘USA’ [chant], all that stuff. That’s what makes it fun.”

The 2022 Ryder Cup will be played in Rome and, according to U.S. golfer Kevin Na, the American team is going to have some major star power at the helm.

“My goal is to make the Ryder Cup team this year, and I know the following Ryder Cup is in Italy and the captain I believe is Tiger Woods, so that’s another thing that I’m looking forward to,” Na told Sky Sports last week with perhaps a bit too much candor, seeing as how no announcement has been made.

Na immediately tried to walk back the somewhat major news he had just broken.

“I heard rumors! Am I starting a rumor? That’s what I heard. Am I not supposed to say anything? I don’t know, I’ve heard rumors!” he said. “I won’t tell you who I heard them from, but it wasn’t from him. It was from one of his friends!”